Reduce your risk for lower back pain by eliminating these four things. Lower back pain is expensive, interrupts your lifestyle and costs our society billions, yet many of the treatments and cures fail to help reduce risk or eliminate the problem. From the chiropractic perspective, most people do improve with chiropractic manipulation and rehab protocols, and making lifestyle changes such as wearing foot orthotics and being physically fit with a strong stable core certainly reduces risk. Many of the treatments that include physical therapy, standard medical care, lower back surgery and epidural injections are not as successful in treating lower back problems safely, and often are more costly says Consumer Reports as well as Bottom Line Personal. During a recent presentation at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons by Scott T. Shemory, MD, Kiel J. Pfefferle, MD and Ian M. Gradisar, MD who are from Akron, Ohio, statistically, they found that while reviewing the records of 26 million back pain sufferers, you can reduce your risk of lower back pain by eliminating these four risk factors which include: Nicotine dependence (smokers) Obesity Depression Alcohol Abuse While many of us have heard about obesity and smoking being a risk factor, alcohol abuse and depression are not as well known. You can read more about this recent presentation here